Ladies' Night Out in Battle Creek
by Jedi Buttercup
Summary: "No mentioning Russ; no mentioning Milt; for god's sake no one mention my ex-contractor or my ex-neighbor ... and absolutely no talk about work."
**Title:** Ladies' Night Out in Battle Creek

 **Author:** Jedi Buttercup

 **Rating:** T

 **Disclaimer:** The words are mine; the world is not

 **Summary:** "I've expanded the rules for tonight," Kim said briskly. "No mentioning Russ; no mentioning Milt; for god's sake no one mention my ex-contractor or my ex-neighbor ... and absolutely no talk about work."

 **Spoilers:** Vaguely post-series for Battle Creek

 **Notes:** For SummerRed, written as a treat in Yuletide 2015. Originally posted on the AO3.

* * *

"I've expanded the rules for tonight," Kim said briskly as the server delivered the first round of drinks. "No mentioning Russ; no mentioning Milt; for god's sake no one mention my ex-contractor or my ex-neighbor ... and absolutely no talk about work."

Holly smiled sheepishly at the first comment over the rim of her blueberry lemon drop; Meredith smirked at the second as she picked up her raspberry mint julep; and Erin looked thoughtful as she played with the straw in her long island iced tea.

"Nothing about work at _all_?" she asked, then glanced over at Holly. "Can I bring up something I _learned_ at work?"

Kim took a sip of her virgin mistletoe martini; it was much better than the last time she'd been at the bar. Probably a different bartender; she'd have to show her appreciation with the tip. "Depends on the subject, I suppose. But fair warning, I've had more than enough testosterone in my day already - make that my _week_. Not to broach a taboo subject myself, but if I'd known a certain pair actually getting along would make my workload _worse_..."

Nods of rueful agreement echoed her shudder halfway around the table ... though curiously, Holly's blush actually deepened. Kim told herself sternly not to ask; cute as it was, she really _didn't_ need to know the specifics. She and Russ knew far too many details about each other's private lives as it was.

"Oh, nothing like that ... exactly," Erin replied. "It's only, I've been dying to ask Holly something for a while now. And I mean, feel free not to answer if it's super personal, but Funk and I happened to be looking into ... something..." She paused, throwing a sidelong glance at Kim.

Kim waved a dismissive hand. "Not on the clock right now; just don't tell me any details." In a department as underfunded as theirs? If she shut down every mostly harmless trespass her people got up to, they'd never get anything done. If it helped keep her detectives motivated, well, there was precious little else she could offer in the way of incentives besides justice, and justice didn't always help a body sleep at night.

"Anyway," Erin continued, "We ran into this guy Holly dated in high school, you know, the one you're pictured with in your yearbook? Most adorable couple or something?" She grinned at Holly.

Holly dropped her face into her hands. "Oh, god."

"So ... 'Holly Go Darkly'? Should we be worried?" Erin teased.

Holly shook her head behind the cover of her hands; but then she took a deep breath, straightened up, and tossed back half her drink. "Let's just say there's a reason I was inspired to apply for work at a police station, and why I'm going to law school. But that's about work, so. How about we talk about something more fun? Hey, did you ever play that prank on your nephew you were talking about?" She turned to Meredith.

"Oh, you bet I did," Meredith lit up, retrieving her phone from her pocket. "Just a sec; you've got to see the video, it's hilarious."

"It seems there's more to our Holly than meets the eye," Kim murmured quietly, low enough for only Erin to hear. It was actually those flashes of steel in Holly's backbone that had made Kim start inviting her to these girls' nights in the first place; she only hoped Russ appreciated them as well.

"Is it wrong of me to be kind of excited to see what she'll do when she gets out of law school?" Erin murmured back, shooting her a grin.

"Not at all," Kim replied, smiling back. Then she nodded toward the pocket-sized spiral notebook she could see peeking out of Erin's purse. "So how's the latest story coming? You're still submitting work to that online magazine, right?"

"Oh! Yeah, it's going great!" Erin enthused. "Still mostly getting my foot in the door - I'm not the next Andy Weir quite yet - but my readership is really starting to pick up. Especially after the last one. I actually got a fan letter last week! I had this cool technology-gone-wrong idea after that FBI seminar I attended, you remember that laser that measures the temperature of people's eyes? Well, I asked myself, what if..."

She went on in that vein for several minutes, eyes sparkling and gestures expansive; science fiction wasn't really Kim's thing, but Erin did have a way of making the plots sound engaging. Whatever quirk of thought had made her a good, detail-oriented detective clearly lent itself to her private hobby as well.

She wound down around the time the the second round of drinks was delivered, and Meredith took the opportunity to lean forward, glancing around conspiratorially as if to invite the others into a secret. "Speaking of bringing out people's dark sides. How about a round of Most Likely?"

"As in ... who's most likely to pinch the ass of a certain FBI agent who shall not be named?" Erin raised a challenging eyebrow.

Meredith looked around at the three fingers pointing her way. "Fair enough. Since the point tonight - well, for most of us - is to get drunk and forget today..." she replied, taking a drink.

"You're sure that's fair?" Holly protested, preemptively blushing again.

"Don't worry; I may be half the size of the rest of you, but I also have twice the tolerance," Meredith smirked. "I'll start off, then. Who's the most likely to ... chew out a salesman for staring at their cleavage?"

The others thought about that, then one by one turned speculative eyes on Kim and her higher-off-the-ground-than-average bust.

"Don't look at me," she spread her hands, "I'm the designated driver."

"Doesn't mean you can't play," Holly coaxed her. "And it's one less drink I'll have to take."

"Does that mean you _would_?" Kim teased. But she drained her glass anyway, resigning herself to a longer session on the treadmill, and relaxed a little more as she offered the next prompt.

-x-


End file.
